Chapter 2548 Making Money
The section of road Zhou Man was responsible for progressed particularly quickly. It was scheduled to be completed in ten days, but it was finished on the eighth day. However, it was too late that day and there were still about ten steps of ground that had not been rolled, so they had to work on it for a while early the next morning.
Zhou Wulang simply didn't rush back to the city. He shared a blanket with three foremen and slept there. He also made a fire in the field and chatted with them.
"The rice seeds are sprouting now, right?"
"Almost, but there's been little rain this year, and my land is dry. I don't know if I've planted yet."
"This time is perfect. I can go back and level the fields, and plant the rice seedlings once they grow."
Zhou Wulang looked up at the starry sky and sighed, "These stars are too bright. It will be another sunny day tomorrow."
"It's not good even on sunny days. This road has just been repaired. It needs to be exposed to the sun for two days to make it solid. It will prevent damage when people and livestock walk on it."
Zhou Wulang looked at them like fools and said, "It's been a dry spring. Count how many times it has rained since the Dragon Raised its Head."
"twice?"
After this calculation, everyone was shocked.
Zhou Wulang said, "Last year, when the Imperial Astronomical Observatory warned us that there would be a snowstorm in the Central Plains and the south, my teacher predicted that there would be a drought in the spring of next year, and sure enough, there was a drought."
Everyone was in a bad mood, after all, everyone relied on farming for a living.
Zhou Wulang said, "So I guess we'll have to wait a little longer before we can plant the rice with water."
"Will it rain soon?"
"Even if it doesn't rain here, it will definitely rain elsewhere," he said. "When the water from the Wei River comes up, it will be more convenient for us to irrigate the fields."
Everyone thinks so too.
Zhou Wulang took the opportunity to ask, "Since there's still some time before spring planting, what are you going to do next?"
Everyone was puzzled: "Go home and level the land."
"The wheat seedlings are turning green. The wheat seedlings that survived last year's snowstorm are growing particularly well. If we weed carefully, even if we can't plant rice, we can still have a good wheat harvest."
So there is still a lot to do. Farm work is really something that can be done twelve months a year.
There is no focus on work. The grass grows taller than the wheat seedlings, but people still think it is not yet farming season.
Zhou Wulang touched his nose and said directly, "There's still time. Do you want to stay a few more days to repair the road?"
Not only the three foremen, but also the people sitting nearby were horrified, looking at Zhou Wulang in disbelief. "We treated you as a brother, a good man, and yet you actually want to extend our labor, oppress us, and exploit us..."
"The next section of the road should be built by Her Royal Highness the Princess. She gave me money to find someone to do the work. I've calculated that if you work with me, I'll pay you fifty cents a day and provide you with three meals a day. I can even have someone deliver the paving stones here, so we don't have to pull them ourselves. What do you think? Do you want to do it?" Zhou Wulang winked at them.
The shock and anger dissipated instantly. The foreman thought seriously and asked, "Will I get paid after I finish the work?"
Zhou Wulang nodded and promised, "I'll settle everything on the day we finish. By the way, if you're willing, just return the job to me and I'll give you an extra twenty cents a day."
The three of them became more and more excited and looked at the villagers behind them.
They were able to become foremen because their families were highly respected in the village, so their attitude was very important.
The three of them didn't agree immediately, but said, "We need to discuss it."
"Okay!" Zhou Wulang said, "Give me a definite answer tomorrow. If you're willing to stay, I'll definitely treat you well. If you're not willing to stay, I won't blame you. I'll go find someone in Outer West City if I need more."
There are many people from other places who set up tents to make a living in the capital. They will work as long as they are paid.
The three foremen shuttled back and forth among their respective people. After discussing for a whole night, most of them stayed. Only a dozen or so chose to go home because they had few family members and had to go back to do farm work.
Zhou Wulang was happy because his subordinates were all familiar people, and more importantly, they were familiar with road construction, so they could work faster.
Zhou Wulang said, "You two should go home and see your families today, and come back tomorrow morning. I'll also go find some more people to make a total of 300 people. If we're quick enough, we might be able to finish it in seven or eight days."
When the three foremen heard this, their eyes flashed. They pulled him aside and said, "Why don't we rush to look for someone? Why don't we go back to the village and look for someone? Maybe someone will be willing to come."
"Yes, we are all from the same village and we are familiar with each other, so we can look after each other when we are working."
The 300 people who came here now are not from the same village, but from three villages. Only 70 households were selected from one of the villages, and they must have relatives in other villages. This job can be done by asking acquaintances.
Zhou Wulang thought about it and nodded in agreement.
So everyone smashed the remaining stretch of road and packed up their things and went their separate ways.
Before leaving, the foreman confirmed with Zhou Wulang, "This counts as a ten-day service order."
Zhou Wulang nodded and said, "Yes, it will be ten days. I will report to the county government tomorrow."
Only then did everyone disperse with peace of mind.
The next day they indeed brought people in to make up for the number of people who had left, no more, no less, exactly three hundred people.
Zhou Wulang breathed a sigh of relief and led them to continue repairing the section of road they had repaired yesterday.
Bai Erlang ran over to take a look and saw that they were divided into three groups, and three sections of the road were being built at the same time at an extremely fast speed.
He stood next to Zhou Wulang and praised him, "Great job, Brother Zhou Wu, you're really good at this."
Zhou Wulang was also in charge of so many people for the first time, and he was very proud. "Not bad, not bad."
Bai Erlang asked, "How long will it take to repair this section of road?"
"Ten days at most, at least," Zhou Wulang looked around and whispered, "I gave 20,000 yuan to the people at the quarry, and they bring us stones every day."
That would be much faster.
Bai Erlang did some calculations and asked in confusion, "How much does their daily food cost?"
Zhou Wulang said, "It would probably cost about eight or nine cents per person."
After all, you need meat, and you do hard work, so you eat a lot.
Bai Jilang: "...Then how do you make money?"
He and Mingda gave him 200,000 coins.
Zhou Wulang said gravely, "Just wait, I will definitely make money."
Even if you don’t make any money, you shouldn’t lose money, right?
Zhou Wulang swallowed his saliva, feeling a little uneasy. Was he asking for too much? Or was he asking for less than Bai Erlang and the others?
As it turned out, they didn't lose much, because they had slaves from the quarry who were specifically responsible for delivering stones, everyone had experience, and because of the wages, everyone worked harder. By noon on the sixth day, the road had been built outside the new city and connected to the main road outside the new city.
Zhou Wulang breathed a sigh of relief and immediately selected ten people to drive a ox cart to the workshop to transport the money. Once the road was repaired, he confirmed that there was no problem and had people bring down baskets of money.
He took out a bunch of coins from the basket and said, "Look everyone, this bunch is one thousand coins. I will give it directly to your foreman, who will take it back and give it to you."
It was the first time that the villagers saw so much money. They gathered around and surrounded the baskets, their eyes shining.
See you tomorrow
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
